A few weeks ago I was writing about our $1,200 investment in our oldest son Wesley’s mission trip to Honduras with a group from Trace Crossing Church in Tupelo. Since then several people have told me about other trips churches from northeast Mississippi are taking this summer, mainly to Central American countries.
Wesley’s group stayed 10 days and every other day was spent building houses just outside the capital city of Tegucigalpa. (Try saying that three times fast.)
By houses, he meant what we would call wooden shacks, but he said the people who moved into the houses were very grateful just to have a roof over their heads and have ownership of their own dwelling place. Without the American Christians buying the building products and supplying the labor the new housing would not have been possible.
The last day he said they joined with another group from Little Rock and were able to hand wash the feet of over 500 people and provide new socks and shoes for over 400 villagers before they ran out of shoes.
In addition they had a special time for the area children with arts and crafts and a story from the Bible explaining the story where Jesus washed the feet of his disciples.
In the near future I would like to write a column with stories like I just shared from people from churches in Northeast Mississippi who have been on mission trips this summer.
If you or someone you know falls into this category would you please ask them to send their stories to my e-mail address at the end of this column…

If China wanted to bring America to its knees it would be easy to do.
Just stop the boatloads of goods and products from leaving their shores bound for this country and they could take America without ever having to fire a shot.
I went into Walmart the other day and just for fun picked out some items to see if any were made in the USA. I intentionally picked out companies that are synonymous with the red, white and blue.
The first item I picked up was a light bulb made by General Electric. Turned it over and it read: Made in China.
The second item I picked up was a Black amp& Decker electric screwdriver. Turned it over and it read: Made in China.
The third item I picked up was a football. Forgot what brand.
Now of all items on the shelves of Walmart, the last thing you would think would be made outside the country would be a football. Turned it over and it read: Made in China.
I thought to myself: Is there nothing sacred any more? Our footballs are being made in China, for goodness sakes! After we solve this national debt crisis of over $14 trillion I think we should pass a law making it illegal to import footballs from other countries. Really.
I don’t care if it’s called protectionism. In fact, we need to be protecting our football heritage.
I am sorry that I had to be the one to bring this to your attention, but I considered it my patriotic duty on this Independence Day weekend to let you know that inside your ball closet may be precious pigskin you think was made in the U.S.A. but was actually made in China, probably by people who have no idea what the ball is used for. If you discover this to be true, I encourage you to sit down with your children and be honest with them about your carelessness and irresponsibility on this front. Ask them for forgiveness and vow never to buy a football made in China or any other foreign country again.
Sure you have set a terrible example for them. I am not going to minimize the damage you have done to the integrity of the great American game of football by purchasing a foreign football. But you can redeem yourself by helping me get the word out about this problem.
Many Americans continue to watch the back and forth in Washington about our national debt crisis and what can and should be done about it. One important fact you may have missed is this: U.S. households are now getting more in cash handouts from the from the government than they are paying in taxes for the first time since the Great Depression.
That is the real problem. “Tax the rich,” you say. Were you aware that the top 25 percent of earners already pay a whopping 86 percent of all federal income taxes? Half of Americans pay no income taxes at all.
Bottom line is we don’t have a revenue problem in our country, we have a spending problem.
And what will America look like if we continue down this road?
See Greece.
Community columnist Tim Wildmon is a Lee County resident. He is president of the American Family Association, but the column represents his personal opinion unless otherwise noted. Contact him at twildmon@afa.net.